


Cherry On Top

by brokenhighways



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Cupcakes, Humor, M/M, Magic, Schmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 15:31:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/688542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brokenhighways/pseuds/brokenhighways
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared's had a crush on Jensen Ackles, the host of Cupcake Wars, for as long as he can remember. After a bad break up with his boyfriend, his friend Chad gets him a spot on the show. Despite the fact that he's a disaster in the kitchen, Jared decides that the opportunity is too good to pass up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cherry On Top

**Author's Note:**

> Notes: This is what happens when I get insomnia :P Thank you to for the speedy beta! Written for the "Heart (Shape)" prompt on my cottoncandy-bingo card
> 
> Disclaimer: This did not happen, and the FN owns Cupcake Wars.

 

  
Jared throws his crumpled up tissue across the room as Chad sets down a bottle of tequila on the table. He was not crying over his break up. No really, his eyes are just...watering randomly. Chad just shoots him a doubtful look when he explains this and Jared decides to pretend that the conversation did not happen. Like he'd cry over the fact that his loser boyfriend dumped him a week before they were supposed to move in together. They'd been moving too fast anyway.  
  
"I tried to tell you, bro," Chad says unhelpfully, and Jared glares at him.  
  
"You're supposed to be making me feel better, jackass." Chad sighs warily and leaves Jared's living room, presumably to get shot glasses, because Jared's down for getting drunk. Three hours later, as they're watching *Cupcake Wars*, he's absolutely hammered. He's pretty sure that they started off watching ESPN, but whatever; the Food Network is still pretty awesome. Jared doesn’t just think that because he has a crush on the guy who hosts the show. Sure, Jensen Ackles smiles too much and his puns are downright awful. But still, he makes the show a lot more entertaining than it ought to be. Jared loves the banter he has with Danneel and Tom, the two judges on the show.  
  
Jared almost met the guy once, at a book signing. He'd been five places away from the front of the line when some fanboy had appeared out of nowhere and tried to jump Jensen. So, instead of meeting his long time TV crush, he'd ended up waiting around for two hours to give the police his witness report. In the end, the book had been panned by critics and fans alike, but Jared loved it anyway. It had been about Jensen's time on the magician circuit, back when he was known as  _Jensen Sational._  
  
"Are you seriously still crushing on this guy?" Chad's voice cuts into his reverie and Jared feels his face heating up.  
  
"I just want to lick his freckles," he says dreamily, not caring that that alcohol has apparently inhibited his brain to mouth filter. Chad doesn't say anything after that.  


 

  
The conversation is forgotten until, three months later, Jared receives a letter in the mail. It's an invitation for him to come down to an LA studio to film *Cupcake Wars*. After at least five minutes of flailing, he calls Chad and asks,  
  
"So, how did you get me on the show?” Chad spends five minutes trying to deny it, even though Jared knows that Chad knows that he can tell when he’s lying.  
  
“ _Fine_ ,” Chad says petulantly. “I know a guy, who knows a guy, and we got some other guy who looked like you to send in an audition tape.”  
  
“Aren’t there more processes that contestants have to go through?”  
  
“I also know a guy who knows a guy who’s a producer for the network. He put in a good word for you. You’re all about cupcakes for dudes.”  
  
“Do I even want to know what the means?” Jared says wearily, even though he’s jotting down everything Chad’s saying on a discarded paper napkin from his coffee table.  
  
“No,” Chad says sternly. “I’m pretty sure Danneel would knee you in the balls if you went on the show and made cupcakes for dudes.” Jared shrugs to himself, because she probably would. The episodes where she looks like she wants to clobber the smug condescending bakers are always the best.  
  
“So…what am I going to do when I get there?” Jared asks as he flops down onto his couch, and kicks his shoes off.  
  
“Bake cupcakes and try not to embarrass yourself on network television.”  
  
“You do realise that I can’t bake, right?” Jared says.  
  
“Seriously?!” Chad all but splutters. “I told my producer buddy that your cupcakes were out of this world.”  
  
“Well,” Jared says. “Technically, I have no cupcakes in this world.”  
  
Chad just groans and hangs up.

 

\--

  
Chad insists on Jared getting lessons from Sandy. She’s a sous-chef and watches the Food Network with Jared sometimes, so she’s more than happy to help. By more than happy, Jared means that she spent five minutes squealing over the fact that she’s finally going to meet Jensen Ackles.  
  
The lessons are mostly a disaster, what with Jared being a complete and utter failure in the kitchen. His cupcakes end up burnt, his frosting is always too watery and he’s pretty sure that flour has some sort of personal grudge against him. So when Sandy sends him out on a run to get more almonds he’s feeling rather glum and dejected. He’s halfway through a vivid daydream in which the judges rip him apart when he smacks into something and the bag of flour he’d picked up (just in case they needed it) explodes everywhere. As if that’s not bad enough, when Jared eventually stops gaping at the mess on the floor, he looks and finds himself face to face with Jensen Ackles.  
  
Shit.

 

  
“He was really nice about it,” Jared’s saying for what’s probably the twelfth time. “He was all like, ‘You didn’t need to throw a bag of flour to get my attention man, next time a single rose would do.’ Get it? Flower and  _flour_!”  
  
“That probably explains why his magician name is Jensen Sational,” Sandy replies dryly as she mixes stuff up. They’d given up any pretence of Jared being the one to actually bake the cupcakes after a slight mishap with some misplaced eggs. Turns out that Jared can’t t focus on anything but the fact that he’d  _met and spoken to Jensen Ackles._  
  
Now all he has to do is make sure he doesn’t make an absolute ass of himself on the show in a few weeks.

 

\--

On the morning of filming definitely doesn’t get off to a good start. Jared’s alarm picks that day to die, and his blow dryer dies on him before he can dry his hair. So, after picking Sandy up on the way, he turns up into the parking lot with a tangled mess on his head and bags under his eyes. But it’s nothing that can’t be fixed by the hair and make-up crew, right? Right. He gives himself a two minute pep-talk and tries to flatten his hair just in case Jensen happens to walk by.

  
“So, have you got your story straight?” Sandy asks as she taps away on her phone. Jared freezes.  
  
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.  
  
Chad had given him this whole ridiculous script to learn. It was all about how he had a budding online business selling cupcakes and fucking marzipans or something. Websites, spread sheets and flowcharts had been thrown his way and Jared had just tossed them aside.  
  
“Just follow my lead,” he says confidently because, hey, he used to be an actor. He can pretend to be someone he’s not for a few hours easily.

 

Three hours later when he and Sandy are eating lunch in his car, Jared comes to the conclusion that overconfidence generally leads to failure. The producers have been grilling him about his business, picking holes in his story, making him shoot the same segments over and over again. That’s not even the worst part; they make him wear a beanie. A  _beanie._  He hasn’t even seen Jensen yet.  
  
“This is a disaster,” he says as he makes a face at his tuna melt. “I’m going to look like a complete loser on TV.”  
  
“You’re doing fine,” Sandy says soothingly. “You’re much better than that Chris guy. I mean, does he not realise that we’re all within a few feet of him? The constant yelling,  _god_.”  
  
Jared laughs a little at that and starts to feel a little bit better. But then he opens his car door. Suddenly there’s a loud thwack and Jared peers down and sees Jensen Ackles lying in a heap by his door.  
  
Fuck. His. Life.

 

\--

  
Thankfully, Jensen’s mostly unhurt and he says that he’s okay to proceed with the filming.  
  
“I’m  _so_ sorry,” Jared says as he hovers around Jensen’s dressing room minutes later. “I didn’t even see you!”  
  
“It’s fine,” Jensen says with a hint of grin. “You can give me one your cupcakes later as an apology.” Jared returns the smile weakly even though he’s pretty sure that he’s going to get voted off during the first round. According to Chad, Jensen usually takes the winner to dinner afterwards along with the rest of the crew and Jared  _really_  wants to win. Even though he knows that there’s not a snowball’s chance of that happening. He stops for a second to wonder if his behaviour is bordering on insanity but then promptly decides that he doesn’t care.  
  
“So, now that you’ve gotten flour all over me and knocked me off my feet, what’s next?”  
  
“The ball's in your court, man,” Jared says easily, his face heating up as Jensen shoots him a flirtatious smile. Jensen’s face brightens and he reaches into his drawer and pulls out a pack of cards. Jared waits for him to spread them out and pick one, but instead Jensen stands.  _Very_  close to him. Jared does his best not to react as Jensen plucks something from behind his ear.  
  
It’s an ace of hearts.

 

  
“Welcome to the ultimate competition,” Jensen says into the room. “Four contestants, three rounds, two finalists and one winner. This is Cupcake Wars!” Jared feels a thrum of excitement running through his veins as he examines the people he’s up against. There’s Chris, the angry looking guy who offended Sandy somehow; Mike, who seems to have constant grin on his face; Katie, who’d winked at him when she’d spotted him leaving Jensen’s dressing room; and Aldis, a cool guy that Jared had spent a few minutes with before they’d been ready to start filming.  
  
Before he can get too distracted filming resumes and the guest judge is announced.  
  
“This week’s theme is a comic book festival,” Jensen says with that sly grin of his. “Not our usual kinda gig, but our guest judge, Chad, is kind of a huge fan. Come on out Chad!” Jared watches in shock as  _his_  Chad saunters out, with a smug look on his face with his shades clipped onto his t-shirt. Jared could lie to himself and say that Chad being here is just a coincidence. But he knows his best friend, and he knows that Chad’s probably rigging it so that Jared will blaze through both rounds. He also knows that Chad won’t listen to him when he says that it’s a bad idea, so he decides that there’s only one thing left to do.  
  
He has to make sure he and Sandy make cupcakes that don’t give anyone salmonella. Jared’s so lost in his thoughts that he doesn’t realise that the first round with the surprise ingredients has started until Jensen saunters over and says,  
  
“Don’t tell me that you used your psychic abilities to see all of our surprise ingredients?”  
  
Jared blinks and for some inane reason, decides to speak before he thinks. “I only came on this show because I have a crush on you.” Jensen’s smile widens slowly and only then does Jared notice the cameraperson right in front of them. Shit.  
  
“Keep talking, Padalecki – this is good stuff!” Jared turns around to aim a glare at whoever said that and by the time he’s turned around, Jensen’s at another table talking to Aldis. Jared sighs, looking over towards the judges table. Chad gives him a thumbs-up and he exhales once more and rushes over to meet Sandy.  
  
“Right, so I managed to get a radish and some ginger,” Sandy says. “Now, we’re going to make ginger cupcakes with—”  
  
“Radish flavoured buttercream and a cherry garnish with a caramel swirl,” Jared finishes as he suddenly remembers the script that they’d come up with. Sandy beams at him and they get to work. After the contestants spend half an hour mixing, cussing, and throwing cupcakes (Chris apparently has some sort of anger problem), Jensen steps to the front and says,  
  
“Okay bakers, you might not rock, but your cupcakes gotta roll! You’ve got fifteeeeen minutes!” He grins, as if his cheesy pun is hilarious to anyone but himself. Danneel giggles like she always does; Tom remains stoic and Chad mouths “WTF” at Jared.  
  
“So, when you and Jensen start dating, you have to tell him to ease up on the crappy puns,” Sandy says. “And this is the part where you start to freak out, just so you know.”  
  
“Oh my god,” Jared says dramatically. “We need to haul ass if we want the cupcakes to come out perfectly!” Sandy rolls her eyes at him but proceeds to make a huge show of running to the oven to remove cupcakes. As the camera focuses on Chris, who appears to be having another meltdown, Jensen wanders back over to where Jared’s just started mixing the buttercream.  
  
“How’s it going?” Jensen asks, as Jared throws in some of the chopped radish and hopes that he’s doing the right thing.  
  
“Great!” he says brightly, his face flushing as he remembers what he’d last said to Jensen. “I can’t say the same for you though, and the cheesy line you just said.”  
  
“Blame my writer,” Jensen replies with a grin. “He keeps on coming up with these ridiculous lines for me to say. I tried to complain to the network but I got an email that said  _‘Writers under pressure are, at present, tense.’_  I gave up after that.”  
  
Jared just laughs.

 

\--

  
Jared is ridiculously hopeless when it comes to decorating cupcakes, so he looks into the camera hovering nearby and says,  
  
“I’m all about presentation and visuals, but my huge hands usually get in the way, so it’s always good to have someone else on hand with me.” Sandy snorts at that but carries on adding the garnishes and caramel to the cupcake.  
  
He’s spared from having to make up some more bullshit when Jensen announces they have one minute. After sharing a look with Sandy, they start dashing around madly even though all of their cupcakes are frosted and ready to go.  
  
It’s good TV apparently.

 

  
The tasting of the cupcakes is probably supposed to be really intense and dramatic, but as Jared listens to Danneel and Tom harp on about cupcakery and the blending of six different flavours, he just wants to laugh. They’re talking about goddamn  _cupcakes_. Now he remembers why he only watches the show for the host.  
  
“Jared,” Danneel says, breaking him out of his reverie. “I like that you picked one flavour and stuck to it. The ginger is spicy enough that it gives your cupcake a striking flavour.”  
  
“It’s a great cupcake,” Tom agrees. “Radish flavoured buttercream really should  _not_  work but somehow it does.”  
  
“I’d eat a 100 of these, straight up,” Chad says and Jared’s just grateful that someone on the judging panel speaks his language.  
  
Well, kind of.  
  
“Yay,” he squeals. He promptly regrets it when they all burst into laughter. Except for Chris, who just glares at him. Jared tries not to gulp too loudly.

 

\--

  
Somehow, Jared makes it to the second round,  _Taste and Presentation,_  at the expense of Chris, who then proceeds to try and clobber him in front of twenty different cameras. After he barely restrains himself from yelling, “ _I’ll see you in court!_ ” as the guards drag Chris away, he returns to the baking room.  
  
“Are you okay?” Jensen asks, once Jared’s back at his station.  
  
“I will be,” he replies with a shy smile, because honestly, Chris was one scary, badass motherfucker. Jensen shoots him one of his trademark smiles, all bright and dazzling and Jared’s pretty sure that his knees actually feel weak.  
  
“Snap out of it, Juliet,” Sandy murmurs as Jensen reads them the rules of this second round.  
  
“Why am I Juliet?” Jared asks with a pout. “I want to be Leonardo Dicaprio.” Sandy merely throws a spatula at his head.  
  
They’re halfway through the preparation of the second batch of cupcakes when Jared starts to feel guilty. They're competing for a place at the comic festival and $10,000. He's not even an actual baker. Sure, he could scrape his way through and maybe give Aldis and Katie the cash prize. But he doesn't really want to be known was that guy who cheated his way through Cupcake Wars. Not only would his agent  _kill_  him, the humiliation would be unbearable. So he comes up with an idea. Sandy isn't impressed when he informs her.  
  
"I bet my boss $30 that we would win," she grumbles and Jared takes a step back to avoid any more flying spatulas. Chad is much more understanding when Jared sends him a sneaky text. 'U think Katie will go out with me if I let her win?' is his reply. Jared smiles and gets back to work.

 

  
When he tells Sandy what he wants to ice onto the cupcakes, she shoots him a disgusted look. Jared adopts his best puppy dog look until she gives in with a weary sigh.  
  
“Fine,” she says. “I’ll help you, but I’m still disgusted.”  
  
“Aw, you think it’s cute!” Jared says with a shit-eating grin. “Don’t hate, Sandy!” He busies himself with going to get the cupcakes out of the oven before she can throw yet another spatula at him.  
  
“The competition is heating up, but are the cupcakes cooling down? You’ve got fifteen minutes!” Jensen’s voice booms across the room and Jared winces again. Jared could write better lines than that and it’s only been his new career for a few months. After his agent had shown up brandishing another ‘Goofy, unattached male-BFF’ role, he’d decided to put his acting career on hold.  
  
“I can write better characters than this,” he’d complained to Chad, throwing the script across the room.  
  
“Well, why don’t you?” Chad had shrugged, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. And while it  _really_  wasn’t, Jared found that writing was proving to be a lot more enjoyable. He’d probably still have to do the odd guest spot here and there, but perhaps one day he’d actually perfect a decent script.  
  
Sometimes Chad was capable of being a helpful friend.  
  
“Jared, you’re not going to stand there and watch me do all the work are you?” Sandy’s smile is purely for the camera’s benefit, and he can hear the tense edge in her voice. He picks up a decorating tip and tries not to scowl at it.

 

  
\----

After what seems like an age, they go through the one minute countdown and Sandy and the other sous-chefs are sent outside.  
  
“Aldis, what did you make for this round?” Jensen asks and Jared finds himself tuning out because pecan anything is just  _gross_. He must end up tuning out Katie too because Jensen calling his name snaps him out of his thoughts.  
  
“Uh, hi?” Jared says before he blushes and realises that he’s  _on air_.  
  
“CUT!” An over-boisterous voice sounds out in the room, and Jared’s pretty sure that he hears a collective sigh of frustration. The director gives them a five minute break and Jared wanders back over to his station and looks down at his cupcakes. He looks up for a split second and sees Jensen heading over and he rushes forward quickly.  
  
“Sup,” he says, like he’s straight out of Douche School. Jensen raises an eyebrow, but it soon morphs into a grin.  
  
“Don’t tell me that the guy who knocked me off my feet is feeling nervous all of a sudden?”  
  
“I guess it’s just the way you make me feel,” he says, complete with bad off-key humming. Jared’s never been one to just  _wow_  someone he likes with his charm, but instead of running away in horror, Jensen throws back his head and  _laughs_ , like really laughs. Jared swears that he can feel his stomach turning to jelly because the sound of Jensen’s laugh is doing  _things_  to him.  
  
The director calls for them to get in their places and Jared takes a deep breath, he’s only going to have one chance to do this. He can’t afford to screw it up. Plus, Chad looks like he’s bored and Jared knows first-hand what happens when Chad gets bored.  
  
“Jared, what cupcakes did you make for this round? Remember that the judges’ comments and opinions are based on both taste and presentation,” Jensen says from his spot by the judges table.  
  
Jared clears his throat as he steps forward. “Uh, actually I’m forfeiting this round. My cupcakes are the same as they were in round one, but we made one slight alteration. Hey, Katie, could you help me hold up the tray?”  
  
Katie practically squeals when she sees the cupcakes. But within seconds she regains her composure and helps him hold up the tray. Jared’s got his phone number frosted on the top row, ‘Jensen’ on the middle row, and ‘call me’ on the bottom. Jared can feel his hands getting clammy as he grips his side of the tray and looks up at Jensen, hopeful.  
  
Jensen grins at him and then confuses him by turning the judges and asking for their opinions.  
  
“I think that you should give the man a chance,” Danneel says with a bright smile.  
  
“The frosting is actually quite decent, and hell, it’s not every day someone turns up on a show you host to ask you out. If his criminal record is relatively harmless, I think you should give Jared a call,” Tom adds, and Jared is shocked to see the man actually smiling for once.  
  
“If you hurt him, I’ll kill you,” Chad, last of the judges says to Jensen. “But I’ve heard that Jared gives great head, if you need an incentive.”  
  
“ _Chad!_ ” Jared says, just as the director curses and yells ‘CUT’.  
  
“What?” Chad says with a nonplussed expression. “As your wingman, I reserve the right to brag about your…uh, skills.”  
  
Sometimes Chad is absolutely  _embarrassing_.

 

  
Eventually, Jared is shown out of the studio. He gives his final interview and has his makeup wiped off. Sandy meets up with him in the parking lot.  
  
“So, how did it go?” she asks excitedly. “Is he gonna call?”  
  
“Not sure,” Jared murmurs. The director had been keen to get things moving so Jared had been shuffled out fairly quickly and he hadn’t seen Jensen since. As he pats his pockets, he realises that he doesn’t even have his phone on him.  _Crap._  Before he can go into a full meltdown, he hears a ringing in the distance and looks up to see Jensen heading his way with some sort of balloon animal in his hand. As he stops in front on Jared, his hands dart behind his back and then reappear within a few seconds, without the balloon but holding his ringing phone.  
  
“How did you—“  
  
“Answer the phone,” Jensen says, with another one of those dazzling smiles.  
  
Jared obliges, and he’s pretty sure that he’s grinning like an idiot. “Hi.”  
  
“So, this is me calling you,” Jensen says. “I have like two minutes to get back in there before Tony fines me for wasting time.”  
  
“Would you like to grab dinner sometime,” Jared says quickly, before he can overthink things.  
  
“I would love to,” Jensen says as he ends the call and pockets his phone. Out of nowhere, the balloon returns, only this time, it’s in the shape of a heart. After that, Jared can’t  _not_ kiss the man.  
  
So he does.  
  
**Fin.**


End file.
